The Cashier’s Downfall
A Seattle Transfer Company employee’s descent from competence to embezzlement begins with a simple, hidden accounting error.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Burdette B. Earl, cashier of the Seattle Transfer Company, was arrested last night on a charge of embezzling about $400 from his employers. He admits his guilt and says he will plead guilty at a hearing before Justice Von Tobel today. For the last ten days, Earl had been drinking hard, although for the previous year he had not taken a drink. On Wednesday or Thursday of last week, the local freight agent of the Northern Pacific, who had noticed the signs of drinking in Earl’s face, gave him a friendly warning and advised him to 'brace up.' Earl said he would, and for a few days he kept sober, but on Monday he broke out again and was continually under the influence of liquor from that day until his arrest. This circumstance led R. J. Reekie, the secretary of the company, to check up his accounts yesterday. He found some bills entered as uncollected, but could not find the bills themselves. He called Earl’s attention to the fact and received the reply: 'That’s where I’m short.' About ten days ago he had found a mistake in his accounts which made him short in some amount. He tried to make them balance, but failed; he had probably made a mistake in giving change or not received enough in collecting a bill. He worried about it so much that he could not sleep, and he sought forgetfulness in whisky. If he had admitted his shortage in the first instance, he might have ended the difficulty there and then, but he was a very reserved man and shrunk from confession.
“If he had admitted his shortage in the first instance, he might have ended the difficulty there and then, but he was a very reserved man and shrunk from confession.”
The tragedy of Burdette Earl—an error leading to shame, then chemical coping, then crime—is a human story that remains timeless in the corporate world. Modern surveillance and automated accounting systems have changed the mechanics of embezzlement, but the psychological impulse to hide a 'small' mistake until it becomes an unmanageable crisis remains a common narrative in professional downfalls.
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